Thank you for contacting the ACLU and sharing your thoughtful comments about the ACLU and religion.

Ours is one of the most devout nations in the world, and it is at the same time the most religiously diverse. The U. S. has more than 1,500 different religious bodies and sects - including 75 divisions of Baptists alone. This country also has 360,000 churches, mosques and synagogues, all coexisting in relative harmony.

The ACLU is committed to defending the religious freedom of all Americans and keeping our national tradition of religious diversity alive and well. To protect religious liberty for everyone in America, however, the ACLU is often in the position of defending the minority from the will of the majority. In some instances, this involves challenging nativity displays or the posting of the Ten Commandments on public property.

We are a nation founded on religious freedom. As such, the ACLU believes our society should be particularly sensitive to the legitimate complaints that government-sponsored displays and other actions that promote religion are offensive and inappropriate to those who belong to minority faiths and to non-believers. The ACLU believes that no person should be made to feel like an outsider by his or her own government.

This in no way infringes upon the rights of individuals -- individuals and private groups, after all, have the right to display religious symbols on their own private property. However, the ACLU believes that there are better ways, other than the use of religious displays, for governmental entities to wish their constituents well during the holiday season.

======= Subject: Does the ACLU recognize my religion? To whom it may concern:

I practice an alternative religion. I am a follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or a Pastafarian.

One of the tenets of FSMism is a religious holiday every Friday, called Friday.

As stated in The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster:
"Friday is the holiest of the Pastafarian holidays and takes place each week. During this High Day, Pastafarian are encouraged to take it easy and, if possible, try to find some sun."

If a Pastafarian were to observe this holiday "with the utmost of piety" as outlined in the book, and took off from school/work to do so, would the American Civil Liberties Union defend that Pastafarian against unfair punishment? Would the ACLU defend that person's right to individual religious pracices?

In short, would you protect Pastafarian civil liberties?

[end of e-mail]

So go ahead, Pastafarians. Do your noodly duty. The ACLU has our back.

The name...

jdogmoney is a misnomer. It's a little inside joke I've had going for a while, mocking all of the people who claim to be "street". I know, I know, it's not that funny, but...

To me this reads like standard boilerplate that the ACLU probably sends in reply to any complaint or query about the ACLU's position on any religious freedom issue. It certainly doesn't say that the ACLU "officially condones" Pastafarianism or any other religion. (And it would make no sense if it did so -- what kind of religious freedom would apply only to religions "condoned" by some organization?) Nor does the reply address the question of whether the ACLU would support, specifically, the right of Pastafarians to take Fridays off. It does talk about public displays of religious symbols, which jdog didn't even inquire about.

Don't get me wrong: I like the ACLU, especially when they thoroughly piss me off by defending the rights of some asshat who doesn't even deserve to live, let alone rights. That kind of intellectual honesty is rare and precious. I'm glad they support religions freedom for members of small-minority faiths, as they obviously have always done. That in itself certainly deserves a hearty Huzzah! from me -- but it's not news.

Rather than pester the ACLU for further answers that would be unlikely to be forthcoming, I decided to do a little research on the question of accommodation of religious holidays under current U.S. law. Sad to say, the prospect doesn't look good for those laid-back Fridays in the sun.

The key precedent in U.S. law appears to be the Supreme Court case of TWA vs. Hardison in 1977. Until then, under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, employers were told they must "reasonably accommodate" employees' religious beliefs and practices in the workplace unless doing so would cause "undue hardship." The 1977 decision altered that, by exempting employers from accommodating employees' religious beliefs wherever doing so would cause more than "de minimis" expense, because such expense would be an "undue hardship" for the employer.

The 1977 case just happened to be about an employee who wanted the option of having Sabbath days off.

The WRFA might be the best hope for Pastafarian Fridays, but even if it passes you still might not get your Fridays off, and the WRFA would also come at the cost of increased religiously-motivated crap you might have to put up with from your coworkers and from service employees with whom you interact in daily life.

To me this reads like standard boilerplate that the ACLU probably sends in reply to any complaint or query about the ACLU's position on any religious freedom issue. It certainly doesn't say that the ACLU "officially condones" Pastafarianism or any other religion. (And it would make no sense if it did so -- what kind of religious freedom would apply only to religions "condoned" by some organization?) Nor does the reply address the question of whether the ACLU would support, specifically, the right of Pastafarians to take Fridays off. It does talk about public displays of religious symbols, which jdog didn't even inquire about.

Don't get me wrong: I like the ACLU, especially when they thoroughly piss me off by defending the rights of some asshat who doesn't even deserve to live, let alone rights. That kind of intellectual honesty is rare and precious. I'm glad they support religions freedom for members of small-minority faiths, as they obviously have always done. That in itself certainly deserves a hearty Huzzah! from me -- but it's not news.

- constitutionAL

I think that came up because I mentioned the word "holiday"...

Their use of a form letter will be their downfall one day.

The name...

jdogmoney is a misnomer. It's a little inside joke I've had going for a while, mocking all of the people who claim to be "street". I know, I know, it's not that funny, but...

Good point, Mr. money. I had figured that your e-mail was probably at least looked at by a human being, who quickly categorized it as in the "religious civil liberties" general category (especially given the question you summed up with) and then fired off the appropriate form letter for that category. But you're right, if they're using an auto-reply system instead, it's plausible that it latched onto "holiday" and "religion" plus a few other keywords and interpreted it as either a complaint about, or support of, the ACLU's stance on religious holiday decorations in public places -- because they must certainly get a large number of those.

If you're curious, you might try another letter, with all the important words misspelled to foil any auto-reply system, and see what response you get. Or, more practically, send an e-mail to the same address complaining about the blatantly Buddhist holiday mural at your local City Hall, or chewing them out for forcing your high school to take down its 40-foot inflatable baby Jesus, and see if you get the exact same reply back again.